Mary Burke Baker is a government affairs counselor in the Washington, D.C. office where she leads the tax policy practice. Mary focuses on federal tax matters affecting businesses, including domestic and multinational corporations and all types of pass-through entities, and individuals. Her practice covers tax policy, tax reform, regulatory and other guidance, tax administration, and technical tax issues, with particular emphasis on corporate and pass-through issues, accounting methods, information reporting, Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) compliance, and emerging cryptocurrency issues. Since enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) in December, 2017, Mary has particularly focused on the Opportunity Zone program and is a frequent speaker on the topic throughout the United States.
Mary advocates on behalf of clients and consults with and advises Congressional, U.S. Treasury, and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) staff on numerous domestic and international tax and tax policy issues, including the new Opportunity Zone program, implementation of business and individual provisions in the TCJA, and emerging cryptocurrency tax compliance concerns. She stays abreast of current tax policy developments on Capitol Hill and around the world and keeps clients informed with timely, relevant, and informative updates, including political insights and analysis regarding the significance of these developments. She helps clients identify and assess risks and opportunities in the ever-changing legislative and regulatory environment and develops and executes strategies to achieve desired legislative and administrative outcomes. She offers technical analysis and drafts comment letters in response to regulatory projects, working groups, and other tax policy initiatives. During the multi-year tax reform debate, Mary lead the Cash to Accrual Coalition and the Like-kind Exchange Coalition. She serves on the steering committee of the LIFO Coalition. She assists individual taxpayers who are participating in the IRS Offshore Voluntary Compliance Program to comply with FBAR and Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) filing requirements.
Mary serves on the Board of Directors of the Real Tax Policy Group, which features biweekly sessions with top Administration and Congressional tax officials. She also serves on the Board of Directors of Time of Grace, an international media ministry.
Prior to joining K&L Gates, Mary served for six years with the Senate Committee on Finance. In that position, she managed several major tax bills for Committee Chairman Baucus, including FATCA, international reforms, basis reporting, and credit card reporting; she also worked closely on ACA and economic stimulus provisions, and managed and maintained the revenue offset list. Mary managed committee hearings; oversaw IRS policies, programs, and initiatives; and worked on tax reform measures. She authored many floor statements, opening statements and press releases on behalf of Chairman Baucus concerning corporate, small business and individual tax policy and tax administration matters. She also was responsible for vetting the financial information, including tax documents, for all Administration nominees falling under the jurisdiction of the Senate Finance Committee. During her time with the committee, Mary was featured in Tax Analysts as a congressional staffer influencing tax policy. Mary also served at the IRS for more than 25 years in a variety of technical and management positions, including large case team coordinator and Manager of the Office of Tax Shelter Analysis. During her time with the IRS, Mary materially contributed to numerous IRS guidance documents, including coordinated issue papers and industry director’s directives. While at the IRS, she received many performance awards, including District Employee of the Year.